{2}OLD TESTAMENT{/}

To anyone who leafs through the Book, the Old Testament appears as a succession of narratives. Among these writings some of which seem more like fables than reality are found discourses, rules of morality, of liturgy, severe reproaches, words of hope or cries of tenderness. No doubt the Old Testament is among the finest texts of universal literature.
In this book or rather in "these" books God is present everywhere as if named on every page. In fact the Old Testament tells us how God prepares humankind, and particularly the people of Israel, to recognize and welcome in Jesus the One who brings about his mysterious and marvelous Covenant with humans: thus begins the New Testament.
The Bible is inseparably the word of God and a human word. It is then impossible to enter into these books if one of these two dimensions is neglected. The Bible is the word of God, and it is at the same time the words of Israel's prophets. The Bible is the word of God, and it is also the cry and the hope of God's chosen people.
The Bible is not a book that speaks of God, but a book in which God speaks of himself through the witnesses he himself has chosen among his people, Israel. The first Christians were not mistaken: "God has spoken in the past to our fathers many times and in many different ways through the prophets; but in our times he has spoken definitively to us through his Son" [Heb_1,1]. So through the different books we see with what patience God reveals himself and prepares his people to meet Jesus, the Son-of-God-made-man, "He in whom dwells the fullness of God" [Col_2,9].
{K}God's teaching through history{/}
When God revealed himself to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they were still nomads; they shared a simple religion with other nomads, an attachment to the God of their forebears and the veneration of a number of family idols. Their meeting with the Living God led them to a new awareness: God watches over those whom he chooses. Many trials seemed to contradict God's promise to them; but each time God intervenes in favor of his faithful people. This led to the establishment of a privileged relationship between God and the patriarchs, marked by God's fidelity to his word and by the unshakeable confidence of his faithful people. Through them, Israel was incited to contemplate both the marvels of God for those he has chosen and the unfailing faith of the fathers.
Six centuries later, descendants of the patriarchs were in the desert being guided by Moses towards the Promised Land. The sojourn at Horeb was decisive: it was here that the nomadic clans were to live a spiritual experience, such that the biblical text would never cease referring to it. God solemnly committed himself to his people at the same time that he gave them a Law: the rule of a covenant with God and a code of personal and communal behavior for Israel. The word spoken to Abraham, was echoed by the message of Sinai. Promise, Covenant, Salvation would be the three pillars of Israel's faith.
With the entry to the Promised Land, Israel was confronted by other people much more culturally advanced. For more than two thousand years these people had an urban civilization, developed agriculture, established commercial relations within the region of the Near East, and beyond. This civilization, brilliant but pagan, would be a constant stumbling block for the faith of Israel. God sent prophets to his people; they were his representatives. David took hold of a small Canaan town and made it his capital: Jerusalem. To it he brought the Ark of the Covenant, the visible sign of the presence of God in the midst of his people. From this date, not only did the Holy City enter into the history of God's people but its vocation surpassed time and history as it appears in the last pages of Revelation as a figure of humanity definitively reconciled with God. Solomon, in building the Temple of Jerusalem, which in time would be recognized as the only legitimate sanctuary, gave his people a rallying center: "God's dwelling place."
Condemnation for Israel's numberless infidelities, remembrance of God's tireless mercy towards Jerusalem, the demand for truth and sincerity in the cult of the Temple, proclamation of a coming salvation: all these are at the heart of the prophets' message.
In classifying among "the prophets" the books recording that span of history, the Hebrew Bible highlights the originality of these texts. For the Old Testament as well as for the New, every event carried the word of God: history is not told for the pleasure of knowing the past, but rather to witness God's fidelity towards his people, to know his will, and so prepare us to welcome the grace of salvation. In this way every biblical text is "prophetic."
With the approach of the end of time the meditation of Israel became more intense. Many trials refined hopes which were too human. With the prayer of the psalms, with edifying narratives or maxims, with the development of humankind and society, sages undertook to guide Israel in the last stages of its journey towards the One who would fulfill all things. The Wisdom Scripture which constitutes the last and third part of the Old Testament may appear less coherent than the Law or the Prophets; they are in fact the reflection of a people distraught and often divided. This was the time when God formed "a small remnant" for himself in the midst of a nation attracted and carried away by temptations to power, and the confusion between the kingdom of this world and the Kingdom of God.
{K}The Law, the Prophets and the Writings{/}
The 46 books of Old Testament make up the first and most voluminous of the two parts of the Bible. It concerns the gradual preparation of Israel for the definitive and eternal Covenant that God would seal with humankind in the person of Jesus Christ.
Just as items in a library might be classified differently by one or another librarian, so the 46 books of the Old Testament were classified in different ways, from the first centuries of the Christian era. Modern editors of the Bible have had to choose between the two most frequent classifications adopted by the ancient manuscripts: the order of the Hebrew bible or the order of the Greek bible.
It is generally the order of the Hebrew bible that we have adopted for the present edition. So to begin we find the five books of the Old Testament, called the Law, the Torah for Hebrew-speaking Jews, the Pentateuch for the Greek-speaking Jews. Later comes the Prophetic Books and lastly the Wisdom Books, a collection of works in various forms giving us communion with the prayer, the wisdom and the morality of the people of the first covenant.
